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CRIME 

AND 

PUNISHMENT 


BLANCH  A  HI)  FOSGATE,  M.  D., 

FOUMKRLY 

Physician  to  the  New- York  State  Prison,  at  Auburn. 


AUBURN,  N.  Y.: 

W.  J.  MOSES,  16  CLAKK  STREET. 

1866. 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


Impelled  by  a  sense  of  the  importance  to  society 
of  a  better  understanding  of  crime,  its  causes,  and 
the  character  of  the  perpetrators  thereof,  that  its 
sources,  peradventure,  may  be  discovered,  and,  by 
possibility,  partially  dried  up,  I  present  for  the  con- 
templation of  the  Philosopher  and  Legislator,  some 
observations  on  the  New  York  system  of  State  Prison 
punition. 

If  the  punishment  of  crime,  and  the  management 
of  the  criminal,  necessarily  involve  the  transactions 
related,  may  it  not  well  be  asked  whether  the  evil  is 
an  inherent  element  of  humanity,  or  whether  it  is  not 
the  result,  in  great  degree,  of  the  influence  of  institu- 
tions by  which  society  is  governed  ? 

Crime  has  increased  in  greater  ratio  than  the  in- 
crease of, population,  until,  not  only  individual-  secu- 
rity, but  social  order,  is  endangered  by  its  alarming 
proportions,  and  it  becomes  a  matter  of  necessity  that 
the  causes  of  this  disproportion  be  sought  with  dili- 
gence, and  probed  with  fearlessness. 


-1 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMEMT. 


That  many  influences  now  operate  to  produce  this 
result,  no  contemplative  observer  of  events  can  be 
unmindful : 

The  cheap  literature  of  the  day,  spread  broadcast 
over  the  land,  ministering  to  a  depraved  sensuality, 
or  the  appetite  of  a  mere  mental  dissipation  : 

The  periodical  issue  of  those  gorgeous  plates  of 
fashion,  which,  among  a  people  who  regard  equality 
in  outward  adornment  as  the  evidence  of  social  posi- 
tion, stimulate  a  desire  for  dress,  to  gratify  which, 
health,  wealth,  and  virtue  are  too  often  sacrificed  : 

Hiding  from  public  view,  discharged  perpetrators 
of  crime,  who,  Cain-like,  should  be  known  of  all  men, 
as  a  part  of  the  penal  polity  practiced  in  some  por- 
tions of  the  country,  thus  exposing  the  innocent, 
while  shielding  the  guilty  : 

Prison  Discipline  Societies  publishing  prison  bills 
of  fare,  that,  leaving  pauper  life  unnoticed,  make 
even  the  well-to-do  marvel  at  the  grade  of  living  fur- 
nished the  criminal,  thus  making  plenty  appear  to 
the  destitute  as  the  reward  of  crime  : 

Strikes  of  labor,  by  which  time  and  means  are 
wasted  ;  and  combinations  of  capital,  for  purposes  of 
extortion,  together,  make  the  commission  of  crime 
almost  a  necessary  instrument  of  self-preservation  to 
the  indigent : 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


5 


Legislative  attempts  to  advance  through  penal  en- 
actments, reforms  that  pertain  to  individual  con- 
science only,  thereby  goading  resistance  to  law  and 
order  : 

Intemperance,  stimulated  by  the  profuse  distribu- 
tion of  money  so  suddenly  among  the  people,  is  bear- 
ing its  legitimate  fruits,  improvidence,  poverty  and 
crime,  in  fearful  abundance  : 

The  administration  of  oaths  innumerable,  in  refer- 
ence to  almost  every  business  transaction  of  private 
life,  has  well  nigh  absorbed  Omniscience  in  the  person 
of  the  revenue  official,  fast  bartering  their  solemnity 
for  lucre  or  immunity  against  penal  statutes  : 

Secularizing  the  pulpit,  making  earthly  schemes 
instead  of  heavenly  aspirations  the  objects  of  its  mis- 
sion, thereby  losing  hold  on  the  mystic  cord  that 
binds  man  to  his  Maker,  and  through  the  tightening 
of  which  his  moral  sensibility  is  exalted,  and  account- 
ability to  his  fellow  mortal  and  his  God  alone 
adjusted  : 

Uprooting  by  physical  force,  institutions  more  an- 
cient than  history,  anterior  to  records  of  Holy  Writ, 
as  old  as  tradition  itself,  thus  changing  the  status  of 
great  populations,  involving  in  its  train,  crimes  conse- 
quent on  social  disintegration  : 


6 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


The  greed  of  gain,  and  thirst  for  power,  which  so 
mar  this  generation  with  their  unhallowed  enormities, 
rendering  it  questionable  whether  the  doctrine  of 
accountability  is  believed  to  be  aught  than  a  cun- 
ningly devised  dogma : 

And  the  Free'School — a  system  based  in  appropria- 
ting the  gains  of  one  citizen  to  the  benefit  of  another 
on  the  questionable  plea  of  public  utility,  having  ren- 
dered right  in  property  less  sacred,  has  stimulated  a 
recklessness  of,  and  imparted  a  facility  to  the  com- 
mission of  crime  that  no  moral  training  will  be  likely 
soon  to  eradicate. 

That  the  doctrine  that  public  utility  is  sustained  by 
any  success  in  a  general  mental  cultivation,  or  that 
such  cultivation,  even  if  possible,  has  resulted  in  any 
practical  good,  has  been  questioned  by  some  of  the 
most  gifted  intellects,  their  recorded  opinions  fully 
confirm.  That  far  sighted  prelate  and  statesman, 
when  he  declared  that  "Ignorance  was  the  mother  of 
devotion,"  referring  thereby  to  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind,  descried,  as  by  prophetic  vision,  the  sanguin- 
ary scenes  of  enlightened  France,  the  learned  infidelity 
of  Germany,  and  the  fanatical  sweep  of  desolation 
now  only  subsiding  in  our  own  land.  Morell,  in  his 
Philosophy  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  notwithstand- 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


7 


ing  the  wide- spread  school  learning  of  the  masses, 
holds  that  mankind  do  not  reflect ;  in  other  words, 
that  intelligence  is  not  a  universal  attribute,  but  a  gift, 
not  to  be  acquired  by  any  degree  of  learning  whatever. 
Lecky,  after  a  profound  survey  of  the  human  mind 
in  its  progress  for  over  two  thousand  years,  remarks,  * 
in  his  Nationalism  in  Europe,"  that  while  "the  great 
majority  of  mankind  always  desire  material  prosperity, 
only  a  small  minority  always  desire  knowledge." 
And,  in  the  language  of  Selden,  "ISTo  man  is  wiser  for 
his  learning  ;  it  may  administer  matter  to  work  in,  or 
objects  to  work  upon  ;  but  wit  and  wisdom  are  born 
with  man,"  and  like  poetry,  music  and  painting,  are 
special  endowments,  for  an  especial  purpose.  The 
idea  that  through  school  learning,  man  can  be  ren- 
dered more  equal,  less  evil,  more  intelligent,  or  less 
the  subject  of  a  destiny  whose  bound  limits  him  to 
the  procurement  of  his  daily  support,  with  adequate 
knowledge  intuitive,  for  its  attainment,  only  excites 
that  vanity  which  essays  to  relieve  him  of  the  curse, 
that  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow  shall  his  bread  be  eaten, 
and  the  vain  attempt  to  dignify  labor  by  school  learn- 
ing, instead  of  teaching  through  Christianity,  resigna- 
tion to  an  inevitable  fate,  is  a  delusion,  the  tendency 
of  the  times  must  sooner  or  later  dissipate.  In  fact, 
no  system  of  religion,  no  scheme  of  public  police,  no 


s 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


form  of  civil  government,  can  withstand  the  destruc- 
tive tendency  of  a  superficial  education  universally 
diffused.  In  destroying  the  love  of  labor,  the  culti- 
vation of  the  soil  is  already  being  left  to  the  newly 
arrived  emigrant,  or  the  handiwork  of  the  mechanist, 
and  idleness,  the  mother  of  crime,  is  thereby  encour- 
aged. In  deluding  its  votary  with  visions  of  unat- 
tainable knowledge,  it  induces  distrust  in  a  ruling 
Providence,  and  makes  him  feel  that  in  the  bufferings 
of  a  blinded  Goddess,  lies  his  only  hope  of  success. 
It  enables  the  charlatan  to  deceive  the  simple,  and 
the  crafty  demagogue  to  flood  the  land  with  blood. 
Yerily,  in  the  words  of  the  poet-philosopher,  "A  little 
learning  is  a  dangerous  thing." 

Finally,  in  the  category  of  causes  adapted  to  develop 
the  latent  tendency  to  crime,  by  blunting  public  sensi- 
bility to  the  moral  sense  of  iniquity,  and  destroying 
public  confidence  in  the  panoply  of  law,  is  the  execution 
of  a  woman  at  the  Capital  of  the  Republic,  by  sen- 
tence of  a  Court,  directed  by  military  caprice,  with- 
out constitutional  jurisdiction.  That  extraordinary 
disregard  of  a  plain  provision  of  the  Bill  of  Rights, 
which  accords  the  accused  "trial  by  an  impartial  jury," 
and  that  high  contempt  for  a  sacred  principle  of  the 
Common  Law  which  holds,  "  that  it  is  better  that  ten 
guilty  persons  escape,  than  that  one  innocent  suffer," 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


9 


give  evidence  that  our  social  morality  is  being  under- 
mined, and  that  the  development  of  crime  —  ponder- 
ous crime,  should,  instead  of  causing  wonder,  incite 
to  an  enlarged  appreciation  of  the  best  means  for  the 
care  and  management  of  the  criminal. 

These,  and  other  questions  lying  at  the  basis  of  So- 
ciety, involving  national  morality  and  individual 
accountability  have,  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century, 
agitated  this  people  and  Government,  as  no  other 
people  or  Government  were  ever  before  agitated, 
unless,  like  ancient  Rome  when  private  morals  were 
poisoned  at  the  public  fountain,  and  Governor  and 
governed  vied  in  acts  of  violence  and  outrage,  until 
her  splendid  civilization  fell  a  prey  to  her  follies  and 
her  crimes. 


The  traveller,  westward  bound,  on  entering  that 
beautiful  miniature  city,  formerly  the 

"Loveliest  village  of  the  plain," 

finds  his  attention  arrested  by  cold,  gray  limestone 
walls,  softened  somewhat  by  the  red  sandstone  belts, 
the  coping  of  the  turrets,  the  quoins,  and  surroundings 
of  the  black,  iron-grated  windows,  of  the  Auburn  State 


Note.— Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Inspectors  of  State  Prisons  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  January  31,  A.  D.  1865.  Senate  Document  No.  30,  and 
other  Legislative  documents  and  reports  pertaining  thereto. 


10 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


Prison.  Surmounting  the  cupola  he  sees  the  effigy  of 
a  soldier  on  guard,  and  the  tocsin  in  full  view  beneath 
his  feet.  By  this  time  the  cars  have  halted  within 
the  railway  station,  whence,  after  the  lapse  of  a  few 
minutes,  at  the  twain  blast  of  the  locomotive  they 
will  emerge  running  along,  not  far  from  the  prison, 
presenting  another  view  of  its  gray  walls  and  grim 
windows.  In  its  western  enclosure  may  be  seen  the 
unattractive  rear  of  the  new  State  Asylum  for  insane 
convicts. 

As  a  philopenist,  a  lover  of  punishment  to  evil-doers, 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place,  partly  for  information  and 
partly  as  warning,  to  present  a  rough  sketch  of  this 
extensive  institution.  The  main  edifice  stretches 
round  three  sides  of  a  square,  and  consists  of  a  front 
central  portion,  three  stories  high,  with  two  two-story 
wings  having  deep  extensions  ;  the  whole  standing 
on  a  high  basement.  The  extensions  are  interrupted 
midway  by  central  sections  rising  one  story  higher,  so 
that  the  three  sides,  with  the  exception  of  the  cupolas, 
present  the  same  general  appearance.  This,  the  orig- 
inal architectural  design,  has  lately  been  modified  by 
a  continuation  of  the  south  wing  to  the  outer  wall  on 
that  side.  The  central  front  building  is  occupied  by 
the  Warden  and'  Agent  as  a  residence,  excepting, 
however,  offices  for  himself,  the  clerk  and  State 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT.  11 


Inspectors.  In  the  basement  of  the  south  wing,  the 
kitchen  and  mess-room  are  located,  which,  with  the 
chapel  in  the  second  and  the  hospital  in  the  upper 
story,  occupy  about  one-half  its  capacity.  The  re- 
mainder, and  the  entire  north  wing,  contain  the  cells, 
and  are  the  great  dormitories  of  the  prison.  The 
building  measures  in  front  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight  feet,  and  is  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  feet  deep. 
The  dormitories  consist  of  blocks  of  cells  five  tiers 
high,  reached  by  galleries  from  corridors,  which  sur- 
round the  entire  block.  These  corridors  are  lighted 
by  large  grated  windows  fronting  the  cells.  The 
cells,  nine  hundred  and  ninety-two  in  number,  exclu- 
sive of  the  dungeons,  receive  their  light  and  air  from 
the  corridors  through  grated  doors.  The  dormitories 
are  nearly  fire-proof,  being  composed  of  stone  and 
iron,  having  only  the  narrow  gallery  floors  laid  with 
wood.  The  new  cells  are  seven  feet  by  three  feet  and 
four  inches  on  the  floor,  and  seven  feet  and  six  inches 
high.  An  iron  turn-up,  sack-bottom  bedstead  and 
bedding  ;  a  Bible,  with  three  or  four  additional  books, 
and  a  night-tub,  comprise  their  furniture.  In  the 
rear  of  the  main  building  are  several  extensive  work- 
shops, built  mostly  of  brick,  generally  two  stories 
high,  but  with  no  greater  strength  of  construction 
than  ordinary  buildings  for  mechanical  purposes.  To 


12 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


render  the  surveillance  complete,  one  side  of  each 
working  apartment  was  formerly  provided  with  a  dark 
avenue,  from  which,  through  horizontal  crevices,  an 
unobserved  view  of  both  keepers  and  convicts  could 
be  obtained.  But  this  right  arm  of  the  discipline  has 
recently  been  abolished.  The  whole  is  surrounded  by 
a  wall  from  three  to  four  feet  thick,  measuring  five 
hundred  feet  front  by  fifteen  hundred  deep,  enclosing 
about  seventeen  superficial  acres.  This  area  is  divided 
by  the  building  and  cross  walls  into  front,  centre  and 
garden  yards.  The  height  of  the  front  yard  wall  is 
fifteen  feet,  having  a  main  entrance  and  two  side  gates. 
That  of  the  centre  -yard,  surrounding  the  workshops, 
is  thirty  feet,  and  of  the  garden,  the  locality  of  the 
new  asylum,  twelve  feet.  The  wall  is  furnished  with 
a  hand-rail  and  sentry  boxes,  for  the  protection  of  the 
infantry-armed  sentinels.  The  general  appearance  of 
the  prison  is  cold  and  repulsive,  rendered  peculiarly 
so  by  the  material  used  in  its  construction,  but  does 
not  strike  the  spectator  on  first  beholding  it  with  the 
heavy  gloom  that  pervades  the  Eastern  Penitentiary 
of  Pennsylvania  ;  and  the  feelings  usually  associated 
with  a  great  prison  are  soon  lost  in  the  manifestations 
of  life  and  activity. 

Should  the  traveller  chance  to  halt  in  his  pursuit  of 
health,  of  pleasure  or  of  wealth,  and  take  an  internal 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


13 


look  at  this  earthly  pandemonium,  he  may,  by  possi- 
bility, go  on  convinced,  like  a  wise  Assembly  com- 
mittee, who,  after  "taking  testimony"  in  regard  to 
grave  charges  upon  its  officers,  ["made  a  rigid  exam- 
ination into  the  condition  of  the  Prison,  the  manner 
in  which  its  affairs  are  conducted  •  *  *  -  *  also  a 
thorough  examination  of  the  Asylum  building,  so  far* 
as  it  had  progressed  ;  and  examined  the  accounts  of 
moneys"  (about  forty  thousand  dollars)  "expended 
upon  it,"]  were,  upon  an  investigation,  embracing  a 
period  of  less  than  twelve  hours,  into  the  most  subtle, 
the  most  complicated  of  human  institutions,  content 
to  report  "that  the  present  system  of  inspection  and 
management  is  a  good  and  valuable  one,  and  requires 
no  change  at  the  hands  of  the  Legislature."  (As- 
sembly Doc.  143 — A.  D.  1858.)  But  the  Auburn 
Prison,  which  proposes  to  prevent  as  well  as  punish 
crime  —  involving  social  power  and  individual 
liability  —  is  too  far-reaching  to  be  comprehended  by 
the  curious  in  a  casual  visit,  or  analyzed  by  partial  or 
incompetent  committees  of  investigation. 

The  Auburn  Prison,  being  the  ensample  of  those 
at  Sing  Sing  and  Clinton,  will  in  these  remarks  be  the 
chief  object ;  while  the  latter,  conducted  on  like  prin- 
ciples and  with  similar  results,  are  introduced  in 
elucidation  of  the  subject  generally. 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


Social  security  and  retributive  justice  are  primary 
ideas  embodied  in  incarceration  for  crime.  Self-sup- 
port and  convict  reformation  are  modern  additions  to 
ancient  practices.  The  original  ideas,  with  their  late 
affixes,  ostensibly  embrace  the  object  of  the  prisons  of 
this  State.  To  secure  society  and  punish  offenders 
are  axiomatic  rights.  Strong,  high  walls,  with  fear- 
less, determined  sentinels,  are  about  all  the  appliances 
necessary,  and  the  arrangement  and  material  of  con- 
struction of  the  Auburn  Prison,  show  it  to  be  ample 
for  that  purpose.  But  self-support  and  convict  refor- 
mation require  a  more  complicated  material  arrange- 
ment, and  involve  a  higher  degree  of  intellectual  and 
moral  capacity.  To  accomplish,  in  addition  to  a 
secure  incarceration,  so  great  an  undertaking,  a  profit- 
able system  of  labor  must  be  devised  ;  contamination 
from  evil  association  be  prevented,  and  a  moral  cul- 
ture instituted,  whereby  the  perverse  tendencies  of 
humanity  can  be  transformed.  The  object  presup- 
poses intelligent  moral  managers,  with  an  especial 
adaptation  to  the  task.  To  present  the  approximation 
of  the  New  York  State  Prisons  to  the  proposed  end, 
defines  our  present  undertaking. 

In  approaching  a  subject  so  important  in  its  social 
and  individual  relations  as  that  of  prison  discipline, 
it  behooves  us  to  look  well  at  the  abstract  on  which  it 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


15 


is  founded,  with  the  practices  thence  arising ;  and  to 
examine  critically  their  results,  that  a  comprehensive 
view  may  be  presented  for  the  judgment  of  mankind. 

The  Auburn  system  of  prison  discipline  is  peculiar 
in  feature  and  unmistakable  in  character.  It  is  also 
the  type  of  a  majority  of  the  State  prisons  of  civilized 
nations,  and  the  competitor  for  public  favor  of  a  sys- 
tem having  principles  and  practices  radically  diverse. 
In  the  abstract,  it  is  a  system  of  physical  coercion,  in 
which  the  idea  of  moral  government  enters  not  at  all. 
The  reason  and  the  passions  are  overlooked,  and  the 
uncontrollable  emotions,  save  one,  are  disregarded  in 
its  administration.  Fear  is  the  element  toward  which 
its  entire  police  regulation  is  directed.  Upon  this 
theory  was  its  government  originally  founded,  and 
every  departure  from  it  is  a  departure  from  its  ele- 
mentary principle. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  Auburn  Prison,  when 
the  convicts  were  employed  on  its  own  construction, 
working  together  with  little  restraint  towards  each 
other  during  the  day,  and  at  night  huddled  promiscu- 
ously in  apartments,  each  accommodating  fifteen  or 
more  individuals,  without  method  or  any  settled  plan 
of  discipline,  John  D.  Cray  —  an  Englishman  by 
birth,  a  retired  soldier  of  the  British  army,  and  a 
coppersmith  by  trade,  assumed  its  police  regulation. 


16 


CRIME  PUNISHMENT. 


To  this  remarkable  personage,  endowed  with  wonder- 
ful physical  endurance  —  making  little  difference 
between  day  and  night  in  prosecuting  his  arduous 
labors  ;  possessed  of  uncommon  energy  and  decision 
of  character,  as  portrayed  in  the  result  of  his  under- 
taking ;  and  who,  though  unaided  except  by  the  work 
of  his  own  hands,  possessed  a  fund  of  knowledge 
seldom  equalled  even  by  those  on  whom  wealth  and 
station  had  showered  their  favors  —  belongs  the  fame, 
whether  it  be  good  or  whether  it  be  evil,  of  defining 
and  executing  a  system  of  prison  polity  which  has 
arrested  the  attention  of  civilized  man. 

The  peculiar  features  of  this  system  are,  associated 
labor  by  day,  entire  isolation  by  night,  and  at  all 
times  perfect  non-intercourse  between  the  convicts. 
It  has  no  reference  to  a  reformation  of  the  criminal ; 
nor  to  the  product  of  his  labor  being  more  than  in- 
cidentally the  means  of  his  support,  but  is  calculated 
for  him  solely  as  an  offender  against  society,  and 
under  sentence  of  imprisonment  at  hard  labor,  as 
the  penalty  of  his  crime. 

Now,  to  carry  out  a  system  apparently  so  incom- 
patible with  the  inherent  nature  of  man,  penalties 
commensurate  to  its  obstacles  must  be  instituted,  and 
corporeal  punishment  was  resorted  to  as  the  means  of 
its  attainment.     This  punishment  was  of  various 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


17 


kinds,  but  that  usually  employed  was  the  cat.  So 
long  as  it  was  the  ordinary  instrument  of  coercing 
obedience,  a  visitor  might  pass  through  the  working 
apartments  without  being  observed  by  any,  or  at  least 
very  few  of  the  inmates  ;  and  communication  between 
the  convicts  by  either  sign  or  speech  was  almost 
wholly  suppressed.  The  constant  fear  of  the  lash 
kept  them  in  as  constant  subjugation  to  the  rules,  but 
the  ceaseless  strife  thus  waged  between  the  will  and 
the  instincts  could  not  long  exist,  without,  in  some 
degree,  inducing  indifference  to  the  penalty,  or  injury 
to  the  mental  faculties.  Every  sound  that  vibrates 
on  the  ear  is  a  call  to  some  other  sense  to  assist  in  its 
relief,  and  each  emotion  has  its  demand  upon  some 
other  faculty  to  relieve  or  help  in  its  manifestation. 

This  means  of  enforcing  obedience  was  for  many 
years  comparatively  successful ;  but  its  demoralizing 
influence  on  him  who  inflicted  it,  and  the  moral 
and  physical  danger  to  him  who  bore  it,  became 
alike  abhorrent  to  public  sentiment.  To  illustrate : 
Eachel  Welch,  while  laboring  under  the  primal 
curse  pronounced  against  her  sex  for  disobedience 
in  Eden,  became  refractory,  for  which  she  was  terribly 
whipped  by  the  keeper  in  charge.  The  occurrence 
was  made  the  subject  of  a  grand  jury  inquest,  and 
resulted  in  a  condemnation  by  the  court.    A  legisla- 


18 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


tive  investigation  was  also  instituted,  and  a  statute 
passed  December  10,  A.  D.,  1S27,  that  "no  female 
convict,  confined  in  any  prison,  shall  be  punished  by 
whipping,  for  any  misconduct  in  such  prison."  Again  : 
Dan  Smith  became  insaue,  and  refused  to  work.  In- 
stead of  an  asylum  to  restore  the  unfortunate  being, 
the  cat  was  applied  to  cure  the  "crazy  man."  He 
was  whipped  and  sent  to  his  cell.  In  the  excited 
state  of  his  mind,  he  rent  to  shreds  his  wearing 
apparel.  On  the  following  morning  he  was  whipped 
for  destroying  his  clothes.  On  the  succeeding  night 
he  not  only  destroyed  the  clothes  on  his  body,  but  his 
bedding  shared  the  same  fate.  Again  the  cat  was 
applied  as  the  sole  panacea  for  his  malady,  but  with 
as  little  success  as  before.  This  course  was  pursued 
at  intervals  for  months,  until  at  last,  after  having  suf- 
fered more  than  loss  of  life,  he  was,  through  Executive 
clemency,  turned  upon  the  community,  disabled  in 
body  and  ruined  in  mind,  a  living  monument  to  the 
barbarity  of  this  mode  of  prison  punishment.  Again  : 
The  lifeless  body  of  Charles  S.  Plumb  became,  Feb- 
ruary, A.  D.  1846,  the  subject  of  a  coroner's  inquest. 
The  facts  were  these  :  The  warden  testified  that  the 
convict,  previous  to  being  whipped,  went  above  and 
broke  out  some  window  glass;  and  threw  out  a  jug  of 
oil,  with  some  other  property  ;  that,  at  another  time, 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


19 


when  making  a  noise  in  his  cell,  and  being  asked  for 
his  name,  he  replied,  "steamboat,"  the  only  answer  he 
would  make ;  at  another  time  he  tore  the  books  and 
bedding  of  his  cell,  and  his  own  clothes.  The  preced- 
ing warden  testified  that  Plumb  wTas  a  "wayward  boy, 
but  not  malicious  ;  his  conduct  was  strange,  but  did 
not  indicate  insanity  ;  his  strangeness  was  a  violation 
of  rules  without  any  apparent  motive,  when  he  was 
liable  to  be  punished."  Now,  it  requires  but  little 
reflection  to  perceive  that  the  testimony  of  both  these 
wardens  is  nearly,  if  not  quite,  sufficient  to  establish 
his  mental  alienation.  The  commission  of  those  petty 
acts  without  motive,  for  which  he  had  been  repeatedly 
whipped,  and  knew  he  would  again  be,  should  have 
sufficed  to  prevent  further  inflictions.  But  his  insanity 
escaped  their  observation,  notwithstanding  it  was 
shown  by  a  former  employer  of  Plumb  to  have  ex- 
isted previous  .to  his  conviction,  and  it  was  proved  to 
be  the  opinion  of  many  in  the  prison  that  he  was  of 
unsound  mind. 

On  the  post-mortem  examination,  the  posterior  sur- 
face of  the  trunk  appeared  so  lacerated  that  the  num- 
ber of  stripes  could  not  be  determined,  but  that  there 
were  not  less  than  between  three  hundred  and  sixty 
and  six  hundred  was  shown  by  testimony.  During 
the  chastisement,  the  constitutional  irritation  com- 


20 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


menced  in  involuntary  serous  evacuations.  This  was 
soon  followed  by  prostration,  succeeded  by  rigors, 
with  only  a  slight  re-action.  Then  came  high  deliri- 
um, which  soon  degenerated  into  stupor,  gradually 
becoming  comatose,  and  finally,  after  less  than  four 
days'  sickness,  terminating  in  dissolution.  The  cuta- 
neous is.  perhaps,  the  most  sensitive  and  extensively 
diffused  portion  of  the  nervous  system,  and  its  sympa- 
thies are  with  the  whole  economy.  The  enervation 
commenced  with  the  diarrhoea ;  the  relation  of  parts 
was  broken,  and  the  physical  stamina  proved  inade- 
quate to  sustain  the  shock,  although  the  convict  was 
in  good  health  at  the  time  of  punishment.  Thus, 
under  the  lash,  perished  a  human  being,  from  whose 
mind  God  had  removed  the  light  of  reason,  possibly 
to  set  in  stronger  light  before  the  eyes  of  men,  the 
inhumanity  and  the  danger  of  this  means  of  enforcing 
discipline. 

The  Board  of  Inspectors  shortly  after  superceded 
the  warden,  and  the  succeeding  Legislature  passed  an 
act  —  December  14th,  A.  D.  1847  —  "prohibiting  the 
infliction  of  any  blows  whatever  upon  any  convict, 
except  in  self-defence."  But  with  the  loss  of  the  cat 
came  also  the  loss  of  that  discipline  which  had  ren- 
dered famous  this  prison,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  shower  bath,  the  yoke,  and  the  dungeon,  with 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


21 


some  minor  appliances,  then  became  the  means  of 
maintaining  order,  and  although  in  appearance  they 
seem  less  severe,  yet  every  agency  by  which  the  re- 
fractory can  be  subdued,  requires  critical  investigation. 

To  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  force  of  the  batk, 
when  used  as  a  corrective,  would  be  difficult  indeed  ; 
for  while  the  culprit  may  exhibit  no  signs  of  extraor- 
dinary suffering,  portions  of  the  internal  organization, 
both  in  function  and  structure,  may  have  succumbed 
to  its  incomprehensible  power.  Phrenitis,  amurosis, 
epilepsy,  insanity  and  death  are  among  its  darker 
phases,  while  those  delicate  shades  of  mental  injury, 
seen  only  in  occasional  aberrations,  must  be  of  fre- 
quent occurrence.  To  illustrate  : — Convict  No.  4958, 
in  the  Auburn  Prison,  said  that  "  while  in  the  stocks 
his  head  ached  as  though  it  would  certainly  split 
open,  when  all  at  once  it  stopped,  and  there  was  no 
more  pain."  He  came  out  an  insane  man,  hopelessly 
incurable,  though  at  times  he  conversed  understand- 
ingly  about  it.  He  was  subsequently  transferred  to 
the  State  Lunatic  Asylum.  Convict  ~No.  5669  was 
showered  with  six  pails  of  water  discharged  through 
a  half-inch  jet.  Shortly  after  he  fell  into  convulsions, 
from  which  he  emerged  with  a  mind  totally  destroy- 
ed. The  Executive,  in  consequence  of  the  injury, 
bestowed  upon  him  a  pardon,  but  he  did  not  long 


22 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


survive.  Convict  No.  4565,  aged  thirty-eight  years, 
in  good  health,  was  showered  with  three  pails  of  iced 
water  discharged  through  a  cribriform  plate,  fie 
was  taken  from  the  stocks  in  convulsions  which  con- 
tinued about  thirty  minutes.  He  had  congestion  of 
the  brain,  followed  by  severe  cephalgia  and  mental 
derangement.  He  was  bled  and  ultimately  recover- 
ed. Another  convict  was  struck  with  blindness  in 
the  8tocks,  and  over  two  years  elapsed  before  his 
sight  returned.  On  a  coroner's  inquest,  held  at  the 
Auburn  Prison,  the  jury  found  "  That  Samuel  Moore 
— a  convict — came  to  his  death  in  the  State  Prison  at 
Auburn  on  the  second  day  of  December,  A.  D.  1858, 
from  a  cause  which  we  are  unable  to  determine  pos- 
itively, yet  we  believe,  from  the  evidence,  that  it  was 
hastened  by  the  punishment  which  had  been  inflicted 
upon  him ;  but  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that 
said  punishment  was  unusual  in  such  cases,  or  that 
any  of  the  officers  of  said  prison  were  at  fault  in  the 
matter,"  notwithstanding  every  witness  concurred  in 
the  fact  of  the  soundness  of  the  convict's  health  at 
the  time  of  his  punishment.  It  was  also  proved  that 
three  barrels  of  iced  water  were  showered  upon  him 
at  intervals  during  a  period  of  forty-five  minutes  ; 
that  the  water  ran  into  his  mouth  ;  that  during  the 
death  struggles  which  were  so  fierce  that,  wrenching 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


23 


his  hands  from  their  firm  fastenings,  he  slipped  from 
his  seat,  and  was  actually  hung  by  his  neck  in  the 
stocks,  and  that  he  expired  in  five  minutes  after  reach- 
ing the  hospital.  On  the  happening  of  this  occur- 
rence, the  inspectors  "Kesolved  that  after  this  date 
the  use  of  the  shower  bath  as  a  means  of  punishment 
in  any  of  the  State  Prisons  of  this  State,  be  and  the 
same  is  hereby  prohibited."  But  from  the  shifting, 
unstable  management  of  them,  it  is  again  in  full  ope- 
ration. 

Dangerous  and  destructive  as  these  instances  were, 
and  difficult  of  intelligent  application  as  this  means 
of  punishment  is,  other  cases,  where  neither  injury 
nor  punishment  were  inflicted,  tell  with  much  force 
against  a  mode  so  difficult  of  comprehension.  Con- 
vict No.  5M6,  seventeen  years  old,  was  showered 
with  three  barrels  of  water  with  little  or  no  unpleas- 
ant effects,  as  he  himself  confessed. 

Notwithstanding  its  severity  in  the  generality  of 
cases,  the  uncertainty  of  its  results  renders  it  a  doubt- 
ful means  of  enforcing  discipline.  The  fear  it  excites 
in  the  officers  generally,  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
existence  of  that  fear  emboldens  the  convicts  in  mul- 
tiplied acts  of  petty  disobediences,  until  the  officer, 
wearied  with  his  own  fears  and  their  insubordination, 
too  often  recklessly  subjects  the  offender  to  the  full 


24 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


measure  of  his  displeasure.  Thus  by  it  the  discipline 
is  impaired,  the  officer  irritated,  and  the  convict 
endangered.  On  interrogating  a  keeper  of  the 
Auburn  Prison  who  had  applied  this  instrument  of 
punishment  for  several  years  in  succession,  and  had 
witnessed  its  effects  in  perhaps  more  cases  than  any 
other  individual  connected  with  it,  he  replied  "that 
all  the  information  he  had  acquired  as  a  guide  to  its 
use  was,  that  the  oftener  a  convict  was  showered,  the 
less  able  he  was  to  bear  it."  This  conclusion,  the 
result  of  careful  observation,  shows  that  accumulative 
injury  was  the  effect  of  its  repetition. 

The  yoke  is  formed  of  a  flat  bar  of  iron,  four  or  five 
inches  broad,  from  five  to  six  feet  long,  and  varies 
from  thirty  to  forty  pounds  in  weight.  It  is  furnished 
with  an  iron  staple  in  the  centre,  to  receive  the  con- 
vict's neck,  and  one  at  each  end  for  encircling  the 
wrists,  so  arranged  with  screws  on  the  back  as  to 
admit  of  fastening  the  arms  stretched  to  their  full 
extent.  The  centre  staple  rests  on  the  lower  cervical 
vertebra,  and  the  bar  crosses  the  chest  in  front.  The 
severity  of  its  application  when  it  falls  upon  a  convict 
of  indomitable  disposition,  with  a  powerful  physical 
organization  and  ungovernable  passions,  was  sadiy 
portrayed  by  convict  ~No.  5904.  He  wore  the  yoke 
six  hours  and  twenty  minutes  —  two  hours  being  the 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


25 


full  average  time.  His  passions  were  so  excessively 
excited  that  he  made  no  confession  of  fault  nor  prom- 
ise of  future  improvement,  but  breathed  forth  threats 
of  ultimate  vengeance.  The  yoke  was  removed  and 
he  sent  to  the  dungeon.  When  bro Light  to  the  hos- 
pital on  the  next  morning,  his  face  and  eyes  were  in- 
named  ;  the  surface  of  the  chest  and  abdomen  was 
mottled,  inflamed  and  excessi  vely  tender ;  pulse  sixty ; 
tongue  coated  ;  appetite  lost ;  sight  indistinct ;  hear- 
ing acute;  intellect  deranged, and  memory  impaired. 
Occasionally  his  countenance  expressed  great  emo- 
tion—  momentarily  bursting  into  tears.  To  relieve 
the  heat  of  the  head,  cold  water  was  applied.  This, 
however,  was  soon  relinquished,  for  on  each  applica- 
tion he  declared  that  it  scalded  his  head — so  much 
were  his  sensations  perverted. 

This  punishment  is  usually  inflicted  in  presence  of 
the  convicts  of  the  shop  to  which  the  offender  belongs. 
During  its  application  he  is  the  butt  of  the  sly  jeers 
and  ridicule  of  his  fellows  in  crime,  and' should  he  be 
endowed  with  considerable  powers  of  endurance,  his 
suffering  is  proportionally  increased.  His  pride  is 
aroused,  and  nothing  short  of  exhausted  energy  comes 
to  his  relief ;  while  the  more  sanguine,  but  less  per- 
sistent, show  earlier  signs  of  repentance,  and  obtain 
an  earlier  release. 

Thus  far  the  punishments  examined  are  all  physical 


26 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


in  their  application  and  tendencies.  The  next,  how- 
ever, varies  from  them  materially.  The  dungeon  — 
silent,  solitary  and  dark  —  with  its  concomitant  bread 
and  water  diet,  is  regarded  second  only  in  importance 
in  the  series  of  prison  coercives.  Here  again  the 
spirit  of  opposition  and  revenge  is  rife.  With  the 
convict  it  is  merely  a  question  of  endurance,  but  to 
the  State,  the  loss  of  service,  in  the  self-sustaining 
system,  is  of  primary  consideration.  The  period  of 
confinement  is  usually  short,  and,  therefore  all  hope 
of  improving  the  convict  through  it  is  annihilated. 

That  these  means  of  enforcing  obedience  are  inju- 
rious to  the  moral  and  physical  being  of  the  convict 
—  engendering  hatred  toward  his  fellow-man,  or 
inducing  irreparable  mental  imbecility  —  often  ren- 
dering him  a  hopeless  object  of  public  charity  ;  that 
their  infliction  meets  with  instinctive  opposition  from 
prison  officers,  and  does  not  accomplish  the  desired 
obedience  ;  that  they  are  cruel  to  the  convict  and 
expensive  to  the  State,  none  conversant  with  them 
can  truthfully  deny.  To  remedy  this  imperfection  in 
the  management  of  these  prisons,  a  judicious  combi- 
nation of  the  Auburn  congregate  with  the  Pennsyl- 
vania solitary  system,  it  is  believed  would  be  ade- 
quate. Indeed,  the  Legislature  perceiving  the  neces- 
sity -for  some  change  in  their  internal  government, 
enacted  in  eighteen  hundred  and  forty  seven,  laws 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


27 


looking  to  such  a  modification  for  partial  relief.  But 
they  are  so  imperfectly  digested  ;  so  much  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  prison  officials ;  so  wanting  in  unity  of 
design,  and  so  at  variance  with  the  existing  plan  of 
support  by  contract  labor,  that  they  are  little  more 
than  a  dead  letter.  So  long  as  the  present  financial 
policy  is  persisted  in,  it  is  clearly  evident  that  no 
radical  reformatory  change  can  be  effected. 

Without  an  intimate  knowledge  of  convict  charac- 
ter, no  successful  system  of  prison  government  can  be 
devised.  Subject  to  like  motives  as  other  men,  the 
mass  of  convicts  are  unlike  them  in  being  the  slaves 
of  particular  motives,  and  unlike  other  men  because 
they  care  not  to  restrain  the  propensity  to  gratify 
those  motives.  Below  mediocrity  in  intellectual 
power,  artful  in  low  cunning  devices,  wanting  in 
moral  sensibility  and  moral  courage,  with  preponder- 
ating animal  desires,  and  no  habits  of  reflection,  they 
lack  that  steady,  considerate,  self-control  which  makes 
man  the  master  of  his  appetites  and  passions.  To 
this  unbalanced  though  normal  condition,  must  be 
attributed  many  of  the  petty  disobediences  so  common 
in  the  prisons.  Many  infractions  are  merely  emo- 
tional impulses,  and  to  punish  inherent  frailties  with 
the  severity  belonging  to  deliberate  offences  is  mani- 
festly wrong.  There  is,  probably,  no  portion  of  man- 
kind so  easily  controlled,  as  that  whose  destiny  it  is 


23 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


to  occupy  a  prison  home.  Individual  exceptions, 
however,  are  surely  to  be  encountered.  Lawless, 
desperate  and  depraved  ;  at  large,  they  respect  no  law, 
and  in  incarceration  defy  restraint.  These  individuals 
are  to  be  subdued,  and  experience  proves  it  no  com- 
mon task.  To  resist  all  pliysical  coercion  is  the  very 
life  of  their  being  ;  and  in  inflicting  punishment,  seri- 
ous injuries  occur  to  both  keepers  and  convicts.  To 
this  class  of  criminals  the  just,  the  appropriate,  the 
humane  means  of  discipline  is  permanent  solitary 
confinement.  In  it  no  conflicts  arise.  All  is  quiet, 
enforcing  meditation,  from  which  alone  reformation, 
as  a  legitimate  result  of  punition,  can  reasonably  be 
expected.  Solitary  confinement  excites  more  dread 
in  the  convict  mind  than  physical  liability.  A  disci- 
plinary code,  in  which  each  offence  should  have  a 
definite  period  of  seclusion,  accompanied  with  instru- 
ments for  voluntary  labor,  and  judicious  restraints  in 
diet,  such  seclusion  to  be  increased  in  duration  with 
each  additional  infraction,  would  rapidly  decrease  the 
minor  offences,  and  ultimate  in  the  permanent  separa- 
tion of  the  hopelessly  incorrigible.  Such  a  combina- 
tion of  prison  polities  would  prove  less  injurious,  more 
just  and  more  effective  than  either  one  alone.  In  it, 
the  congregate  system  would  represent  the  penalty  of 
crime  against  society,  and  the  solitary  system  the  pen- 
alty against  prison  regulations.    The  two,  effectually 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


29 


conjoined,  would  present  emphatically  an  American 
System  of  Prison  Discipline. 

 m  t  •  ■  »  — 

There  are  many  influences  inimical  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  results  contemplated  by  society  in 
the  Xew  York  State  Prisons.  After  the  completion 
of  the  building  at  Auburn,  the  contract  plan  of  occu- 
pation and  support  of  criminals  was  introduced  under 
the  w  ardenship  01  Elam  Lynds,  whose  iron  will  and 
incorruptible  integrity  to  the  interests  of  the  State 
withstood  for  a  time  its  insidious  and  destructive  ten- 
dency. But  in  the  successive  and  rapid  changes  of 
administration  through  which  it  has  passed,  involving 
the  fallibility  of  man  and  the  mutations  of  time,  it 
has  become  the  central  power  to  which  all  else  is 
made  subservient.  It  is  so  deeply  interwoven  in  its 
economy,  that  frequent  conflicts  for  supremacy  be- 
tween the  State  and  the  contractor,  render  it  difficult 
to  determine  which  is,  de facto,  the  governing  power. 
To*comprehend  the  strength  of  this  influence,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  each  alternation  of  party  as- 
cendancy suddenly  changes  every  official,  from  the 
warden  to  the  gate  tender  ;  while  the  contractors  may 
be,  and  often  are,  connected  with  the  institution  for 
many  years  in  succession.  It  can  readily  be  perceived 
how  prodigiously  the  influence  of  the  contractor  must 
be  increased  with  every  change  of  officers.    The  con- 


30 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


tracts  are  held,  generally,  by  individuals  possessed  of 
wealth  and  endowed  with  talents ;  influential  in  so- 
ciety and  oftener  than  otherwise  powerful  in  party 
politics.  In  fact,  they  are  among  the  strongest  mem- 
bers of  community.  Now,  it  would  be  preposterous 
to' suppose  that  individuals,  whose  salaries  barely  suf- 
fice for  their  support,  and  who  depend  for  that  support 
upon  the  precarious  tenure  of  office,  could  meet,  single 
handed,  those  contractors  whose  familiarity  with  the 
institution  gives  them  an  advantage,  over  both  officers 
and  convicts,  absolutely  incalculable.  The  truth  is, 
that  the  interests  of  the  contractor  and  the  interests 
of  the  State  are  continually  at  variance.  It  would  seem 
that  the  institution  was  established  to  gratify  the  cupid- 
ity of  the  one  to  the  total  disregard  of  the  other ;  and 
that  the  momentous  interests  of  society  involved  in  the 
good  management  of  criminals  were  entirely  ignored. 
It  is  through  this  branch  of  polity  that  the  corrupti- 
bility of  prison  inspectors  is  so  readily  attained,  and 
which,  as  by  contagion,  reaches  every  grade  until  a  full 
development  is  found  in  its  incarcerated  population. 

The  contract  plan  of  support  is  not  only  detrimen- 
tal to  the  State,  but  unjust  to  the  convict,  as  it  regards 
each  one  whose  labor  is  contracted  for,  an  able-bodied 
man,  and  consequently  a  corresponding  amount  of 
labor  is  required  of  him.  The  modifying  influences 
of  incarceration  are  disregarded,  and,  through  bribes 


GRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


31 


from  the  contractor,  or  punishment  by  the  keeper,  he 
is  driven  on  until  he  falls  under  the  care  of  the  physi- 
cian, again  to  run,  on  his  restoration  to  health,  the 
usual  round  of  injustice.  To  illustrate : — The  stint 
for  each  brussels  carpet  weaver  is  four  yards  daily. 
This  amount  to  an  active,  healthy,  experienced  work- 
man, with  alternations  of  rest,  is  not  excessive,  and 
he  goes  through  life  uninj  ured  by  his  occupa  tion.  But 
it  is  well  known  that,  with  occasional  exceptions,  four 
years  spent  in  brussels  weaving  in  the  Auburn  Prison 
consumes  the  physical  energy.  Alternate  periods  of 
rest  are  indispensable  to  physical  integrity,  but  of 
these  the  convict  is  necessarily  deprived.  •  Even  the 
Christian  Sabbath  is  no  relief  to  him.  Although  he 
does  not  work,  the  extra  confinement  in  his  badly  ven- 
tilated cell  is  less  supportable  than  his  week  day  labor. 

The  material  composing  the  population  of  this  prison, 
is  shown  in  the  record  of  five  hundred  and  eighty 
convicts  received  during  a  period  of  two  years.  Of 
these,  238  came  in  more  or  less  sick ;  190  had  sustain- 
ed mechanical  injuries  ;  83  were  consumptive  or  had 
consumption  in  their  families ;  23  were  ruptured  ;  5 
insane ;  3  epileptic,  and  the  remaining  38  were  ad- 
judged sound.  As  nearly  as  could  be  determined,  369 
were  of  Saxon  blood ;  148  Celtic ;  57  African  ;  3 
Jewish,  and  3  aboriginal.  ISIow,  to  say  that  the  State 
ever  intended  to  define  the  amount  of  daily  labor  to  be 


32 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


equal  on  each  individual, of  this  motley  mass,  differ- 
ing widely  in  health,  in  mental  power,  in  tempera- 
ment, in  physical  organization,  would  be  to  charge  it 
with  imbecility.  And  yet,  the  contract  plan,  utterly 
disregarding  these  conditions,  places  them  all  on  the 
same  footing  with,  perhaps,  the  exception  of  palpable 
bodily  infirmity. 

The  discipline  is  also  seriously  impaired  by  the 
common  practice  of  bribing  convicts  to  increased  ex- 
ertion. Shut  up  from  the  pleasures  and  luxuries  of 
life,  the  appetite  becomes  a  mighty  lever  in  the  hands 
of  the  unscrupulous.  'J  he  craving  for  fruit,  confec- 
tionary, spirits  and  whatever  may  be  the  desire  of 
taste  or  fancy,  are  the  means  whereby  many  a  con- 
vict is  driven  to  labor  with  a  zeal  almost  unaccounta- 
ble. To  gratify  these  cravings  is  to  overstep  the  rules 
of  order.  Yet  it  is  the  secret  work  of  daily  practice, 
and  when  discovered  by  the  officer  on  duty,  it  is  at  his 
peril  that  he  reports  the  offender.  Experience,  gained 
by  precept  and  example,  has  taught  him  that  the  mon- 
ey power  of  the  contractor  is  more  efficient,  in  pris- 
on management,  than  the  political  influence  of  the  offi- 
cials in  whose  keeping  they  are  but  apparently  placed. 

Upon  a  close  investigation  it  would  be  found  that 
the  financial  result  of  this  system,  is  as  unprofitable 
to  the  State  as  its  moral  effects  are  pernicious  to  the 
officers  and  convicts.    The  endless  variety  of  claims 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


33 


which  a  fertile  ingenuity,  stimulated  by  the  insatiate 
thirst  of  gain,  presents  as  offsets  to  liability  ;  and  the 
prodigious  loss  by  failure,  if  exhibited  in  a  balance 
sheet  comprising  the  monetary  operation  of  the  pris- 
ons for  the  past  twenty-five  years,  would  show  the 
State  immensely  the  loser.  "The  experience,"  say 
the  inspectors  in  their  Tenth  Annual  Report,  "of  all 
connected  with  the  prisons,  has  demonstrated  the  utter 
folly  of  a  resort  to  litigation  between  the  Agents  of 
the  prisons  and  contractors ;  the  result,  in  every  in- 
stance, having  been  disastrous  to  the  interests  of  the 
State."  Governor  Morgan,  in  his  Annual  Message  to 
the  Legislature,  January  4th,  A.  D.  1859,  in  referring 
to  the  change  in  prison  administration  under  the  State 
constitution  of  eighteen  hundred  and  forty -six,  says 
that  "the  expenditures  of  the  three  prisons  have  ex- 
ceeded the  earnings,  in  these  twelve  years,  over  one 
and  a  half  millions  of  dollars,  which  have  been  paid 
from  the  general  fund.  It  is  well  to  know  that  our 
prison  system  is  much  more  expensive  than  the  sys- 
tem in  operation  in  several  other  States  ;  while  in  dis- 
cipline and  management  it  is  inferior  to  some  others." 

By  superceding  the  contract  plan  of  support,  these 
conflicts  between  the  State  and  the  citizen  would 
cease.  Employed  on  branches  of  industry  selected  to 
prepare  them  to  obtain  a  living  when  liberated,  and  to 
pay  in  part  the  cost  of  confinement,  the  incarceration 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


of  criminals  could  be  managed  for  their  prospective 
welfare  and  to  the  advantage  of  society. 

The  mistaken — nay,  improvident  use  made  of  the 
pardoning  power  is  to  many  reflecting  minds  a  source 
of  profound  regret.  It  reflects  upon  the  character  of 
the  courts,  and  oftentimes  turns  upon  community 
prematurely  the  most  abandoned  criminals.  During 
the  first  decade  under  this  constitution,  there  were 
bestowed  over  two  thousand  pardons,  and  in  the  last 
official  year,  one  hundred  were  granted  to  the  inmates 
of  the  three  prisons.  That  so  large  a  portion  should 
be  liberated  on  the  ground  of  reformation,  depends 
upon  an  inadequate  knowledge  of  convict  character, 
and  is  the  result  of  a  serious  delusion.  This  gift  has 
become  so  common,  that,  by  practicing  hypocrjsy  in 
some  form,  very  many  convicts  deem  it  a  right  to 
which  they  are  justly  entitled,  and  if  withheld,  an  act 
of  oppression  towards  them.  A  restriction  of  pardon 
to  cases  of  excessive  severity  of  sentence,  and  convic- 
tions on  doubtful  testimony,  would  establish  the  inter- 
course between  convict  and  keeper  on  a  natural  foun- 
dation, and  secure  society  against  much  imposition. 

An  item  of  twenty -one  hundred  and  sixty- three 
dollars  received  from  visitors  admitted  to  the  prisons 
during  the  last  fiscal  year,  is  presented  in  the  seven- 
teenth annual  report.  The  practice  of  exhibiting 
convicts  to  the  gaze  of  idle  curiosity,  much  as  wild 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


35 


beasts  are  shown  to  the  multitude  in  a  menagerie,  and 
at  the  same  cost  of  admission,  is  the  source  of  un- 
necessary mortification  to  those  sensible  of  their  deg- 
radation ;  a  troublesome  diversion  of  attention  to 
others ;  to  many  a  source  of  excitement  leading  to 
physical  injury,  and  altogether  inconsistent  with  that 
quiet,  orderly,  secluded  condition  necessary  to  the 
best  management  of  the  prisons,  and  incompatible 
with  the  dignity  of  the  State. 

The  Asylum  for  insane  convicts,  lately  erected  on 
the  grounds  of  the  Auburn  Prison,  relieves  these 
institutions  of  the  care  of  this  class  of  convicts. 
But  the  relation  this  discipline  bears  to  insanity  re- 
quires a  wider  range  than  the  limit  of  this  investiga- 
tion will  permit.  Not  less,  however,  than  three  per 
centum  of  the  State  convicts  become  deranged. 
Many  causes  operate  to  produce  this  sad  result.  Some 
inhere  to  every  system  of  prison  discipline,  but  many 
are  peculiar  to  this  alone.  Its  effects  on  the  inmates 
at  Auburn  were  so  obvious,  that  the  Superintendent 
of  the  State  Lunatic  Asylum  at  Utica,  in  his  report 
transmitted  February,  A.  D.  1852  —  Senate  Doc.  No. 
46  —  saw  fit  to  remark  that  "common  humanity  de- 
mands that  these  facts  should  not  pass  unnoticed." 

The  medical  portion  of  this  report  presents  the 
usual  healthfulness  of  the  prisons.  During  the  year, 
forty  of  their  inmates  paid  the  debt  of  nature.  But 


36 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


their  entire  range  of  hygiene,  we  are  led  to  conclude, 
has  reached  that  point  beyond  which  science  is  inope- 
rative. Cleanliness,  ventilation,  warming,  lighting, 
sustenance,  clothing,  dryness  and  moisture,  are  only 
alluded  to.  Even  that  fell  disease,  which  in  a  series 
of  thirty-three  years  caused  thirty-five  per  centum  of 
the  mortality  in  the  Auburn  prison,  elicits  but  a  pass- 
ing remark,  notwithstanding  the  proportion  is  increas- 
ing from  pulmonary  affections. 

Like  most  questions  involving  social  problems, 
penal  life  has  become  a  favorite  object  of  progress. 
Private  exertion  zealously  overflows  with  benevolence 
toward  it,  and  extraordinary  favor  is  sought  through 
legislative  aid  in  its  behalf.  The  intellectual  cultiva- 
tion and  moral  reformation  of  criminals  have  elicited 
the  guardianship  of  its  spirit^  and  the  convict  is  com- 
ing to  be  regarded  as  more  unfortunate  than  wicked. 

In  touching  a  subject  so  indifferently  comprehended 
as  crime,  misconception  and  reproach  may  be  appre- 
hended: But  that  misguided  zeal  will  prove  more 
mischievous  than  apathetic  conservatism,  a  knowledge 
of  convict  character  will  fully  verify.  The  extraordi- 
nary effort  to  educate  the  convict  to  reform  him,  is 
seed  sown  in  a  barren  soil.  The  harvest  return  will 
not  repay  the  laborer.  The  popular  belief  that  igno- 
rance is  the  source  of  crime,  and  consequently  intel- 
lectual cultivation  —  i.      the  ability  to  read,  write 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


37 


and  to  calculate, —  will  improve  the  moral  sentiment, 
statistics  accompanying  prison  reports  for  the  past 
seventeen  years  show  to  be  an  error.  At  Sing  Sing, 
in  the  year  1848,  the  average  number  of  convicts  was 
seven  hundred  and  forty-four,  of  which  seventy-five 
per  centum  possessed  in  some  degree  the  elements  of 
education,  and  of  that  number  only  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six  were  convictions  of  the  year.  In  1856, 
eight  years  thereafter,  the  average  number  was  nine 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  three  hundred 
and  forty-six  new  convictions,  but  one  of  their  num- 
ber was  unable  to  read.  In  1864,  eight  years  more, 
the  average  number  was  nine  hundred  and  forty- 
three,  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  being  the  con- 
victions of  that  year,  and  but  thirty-six  of  them 
were  without  some  education.  At  Auburn  the 
reports  of  1848  and  1856  show  no  better  results, 
while  that  of  1864  informs  us  that  of  the  five  hundred 
and  fifty  convicts  there  confined,  the  degrees  of  edu- 
cation are,  "  seven  classical,  fourteen  academic,  two 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  common  school,  two  hun- 
dred read  and  write,  fifty-two  read  only,  and  forty- 
one  are  without  education,"  presenting  proportion- 
ally, a  higher  grade  of  education  than  that  of  the  sur- 
rounding community.  From  these  facts,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  almost  universal  diffusion  of  education 
emanating  from  the  free  school  system,  and  the  dis- 
proportional  increase  of  crime  to  the  increase  of  pop- 


3S 


crimp:  and  punishment. 


ulation,  it  appears  quite  safe  to  conclude,  that  school 
learning  is  no  preventive  of  crime  against  society, 
nor,  as  will  shortly  appear,  any  barrier  to  disobe- 
dience within  prison  walls.  In  fact,  a  large  propor- 
tion of  offences  presuppose  a  tolerably  educated 
offender.  It  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  education 
confers  either  happiness  or  morality.  It  sharpens  the 
intellect,  it  illumines  the  path  of  ambition,  it  fits 
man  for  more  successful  conflict  with  his  fellow,  but 
it  approaches  not  the  moral  sensibility.  Instructing 
convicts  in  school  learning  is  calculated  to  withdraw 
them  from  a  serious  contemplation  of  their  own 
imperfections,  by  exciting  a  worldly  activity  during 
a  period  that  would  otherwise  be  passed  in  quiet, 
silent  reflection.  Moral  improvement  is  the  result  of 
self-examination,  and  to  perpetually  intrude  upon  the 
limited  solitude  allowed  by  this  discipline,  is  to 
thwart  the  desired  end.  The  avidity  with  which 
convicts  seize  the  opportunity  of  instruction,  is  to 
obtain  exemption  from  their  own  reflections.  To 
gain  this,  ingenuity  puts  forth,  in  every  conceivable 
way,  its  wonderful  powers. 

In  18i8,  the  disciplinary  punishments  in  the  Sing 
Sing  Prison  amounted  to  forty-seven  per  centum  on 
the  average  number  of  convicts.  In  1856  it  rose  to 
seventy-two.  In  1863  it  went  up  to  one  hundred  and 
thirty-six,  and  in  1864  it  amounted  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty,  showing  that  the  number  of  punishments 
had  trebled  within  that  period. 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


39 


The  disciplinary  statistics  of  the  prison  at  Sing 
Sing  have  been  selected  to  show  the  utter  failure  of 
the  reformatory  scheme  in  the  internal  management 
of  these  prisons.  Ifc  is  here  that  intellectual  as  well 
as  moral  training  has  been  the  most  persistently  pur- 
sued, and  it  was  from  this  focus  of  all  their  rays  that 
a  renewed  convict  nature  was  to  burst  forth  in  mil- 
lennial glory.  As  an  illustration  of  the  views 
involved  for  a  long  time  in  its  management,  the  fol- 
lowing, from  the  report  of  the  Warden — October,  A. 
*  D.  1862  —  is  but  a  fair  example  :  —  "It  is  almost  too 
much  to  expect  that  punishment  in  a  penal  institu- 
tion can  be  entirely  dispensed  with  ;  but  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  may,  by  proper  management,  seldom 
be  found  necessary  to  resort  to  it.  In  studying  the 
character  of  these  prisoners,  I  find  they  are  not  unlike 
other  men  in  their  dispositions  :  if  they  are  well 
treated,  they  appreciate  it,  and,  if  they  are  subject  to 
a  long  course  of  abuse,  they  become  reckless,  and 
often  desperate  ;  and  I  am  strongly  of  opinion  that 
a  large  proportion  of  the  punishments  hitherto  inflict- 
ed have  been  as  much  the  fault  of  those  placed-  in 
authority  over  them  as  of  the  criminals  themselves." 
During  the  official  year  ending  October,  A.  D.  1863, 
under  this  Warden,  on  an  average  of  eight  hundred 
and  ninety  convicts,  there  were  six  hundred  and 
seven  of  their  number  punished  altogether  twelve 
hundred  and  fifteen  times ;  and  in  the  following 


40 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


year,  on  an  average  of  seven  hundred  and  ninety-six, 
there  were  fourteen  hundred  and  three  inflictions  for 
disorderly  conduct,  being  an  increase,  as  before 
stated,  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  centum*  during 
these  seventeen  years  of  reformatory  experiment. 

Among  the  supplemental  reports,  those  of  the  chap- 
lains are  worthy  of  an  especial  consideration.  In  turn- 
ing back  to  the  Tenth,  it  appears  that,  ''although  the 
results,"  in  the  language  of  the  chaplain  at  Sing  Sing, 
"of  the  moral  and  reiigious  appliances  of  the  year 
are  not  as  favorable  as  could  be  desired,  yet  1  have 
reason  to  regard  them  as  being,  on  the  whole,  more 
satisfactory  than  those  of  the  previous  year.  While 
I  am  obliged  to  confess  the  too  evident  fact  that  a 
number  of  convicts,  comparatively  small,  however, 
gave  fearful  evidence,  a  few  months  since,  of  a  stub- 
born and  reckless  spirit,  I  am  happy  in  the  conviction 
that  even  they  have  recently  manifested  a  subdued 
and  quiet  temper,  while  the  large  majority  have  ex- 
hibited no  other  disposition  during  the  entire  year. 
This  general  quiet  and  observance  of  good  order  are 
referable  as  much  to  the  wholesome  discipline  direct- 
ed by  the  ordinance  of  your  own  Board,  as  to  the 
moral  and  religious  appliances."  At  Auburn,  the 
chaplain  says  :  "  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that 
several,  by  the  blessing  of  God  upon  my  humble 
efforts,  have  not  only  been  thoroughly  reformed,  but 
evangelically  converted."    "The  reformation  of  con- 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


41 


victs,"  remarks  the  chaplain  at  Clinton,  "  desirable 
and  important  as  the  work  appears,  is  attended  with 
many  difficulties.  This  will  he  readily  conceded, 
even  by  those  who  have  but  a  limited  acquaintance 
with  their  history  ;  yet  it  is  most  evident  that  the 
influence  of  our  prison  discipline  is  reformatory,  and 
that  very  many  subjected  to  it  become  wiser  and 
better  men.  *  *  *  The  field  in  which  I  labor  is 
hard  to  cultivate,  and  yet  it  is  an  interesting  field, 
not  wholly  barren  and  unfruitful.  The  seed  sown 
may,  to  a  lamentable  extent,  be  choked  by  thorns  ; 
yet  some  has  fallen  upon  good  ground,  and  will  pro- 
duce precious  fruits,  to  be  at  last  gathered  by  the 
reaper  in  the  final  harvest."  The  discriminating 
judgment  and  sincere,  hopeful  piety  thus  expressed, 
is  ample  testimony  to  the  faithful  performance,  yet 
comparative  fruitlessness  of  his  labors,  and  presents 
a  just  counterpart  to  the  results  at  Sing  Sing  and 
Auburn  at  the  close  of  the  first  decade  of  the  new 
system  of  prison  government.  Seven  years  later,  in 
the  Seventeenth  Annual  Report,  it  is  observed  by  the 
chaplain  of  the  Auburn  Prison,  that  "much  labor 
with  little  fruit  is  the  lesult  of  our  best  . efforts  in  the 
religious  culture  of  these  men.  Good  impressions 
are  readily  made  on  this  class  of  minds,  for  they  are 
an  impressible  people ;  but  their  goodliness  is  as  a 
morning  cloud,  and  as  the  early  dew  it  goeth  away.5' 
On  examining  the  series  of  reports,  we  find,  not- 


42 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


withstanding  the  signal  failure  to  accomplish  any 
considerable  degree  of  success  after  an  educational 
and  reformatory  course  diligently  pursued  for  seven- 
teen years,  and  operating  upon  over  four  generations 
of  prison  population,  that  reformation  is  still  the 
absorbing  idea  involved  in  incarceration  by  these 
spiritual  advisers.    To  those  looking  at  the  future 
state  only  as  worthy  of  serious  contemplation,  and 
the  present  as  but  preparatory  to  it,  such  views  of  the 
penitentiaries  may  be  charitably  excused.    But  when 
men,  placed  at  the  head  of  the  great  prison  polity  of 
the  State,  not  only  acknowledge  it  to  be  so,  but  pro- 
ceed to  act  upon  it  as  a  portion,  in  their  own  lan- 
guage, of  "the  great  law  of  progress,"  and  propose 
to  engraft  a  line  of  conduct  upon  so  baseless  a  fabric, 
they  richly  deserve  the  condemnation  of  every  states- 
man and  every  philosopher.    "  If,"  say  the  Inspect- 
ors, in  their  Tenth  Annual  Report,  "  as  now  almost 
universally  admitted,  the  present  theory  of  prison 
discipline  is  the  reformation  of  offenders,  and  the 
object  is  to  return  them  to  society  wiser  and  better 
men,  then,  in  our  judgment,  nothing  could  be  more 
advantageous  than  to  make  them,  in  some  degree, 
the  arbiters  of  their  own  destinies."    To  accomplish 
a  result  so  desirable,  they  propose  to  4 '  show  to  them 
that,  though  compelled  to  seclude  them  for  a  time 
from  the  society  of  friends,  to  deprive  them  of  the 
liberty  to  control  their  own  actions,  and  to  be  obliged 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


43 


to  come  and  to  go  at  the  bidding  of  another,  yet,  even 
there,  good  conduct  brings  with  it  its  reward,  and 
constant  application  to  duties  imposed,  and  steady 
conformity  to  the  regulations  laid  down  to  govern 
their  conduct,  pass  to  their  credit  on  the  books  of  the 
institution."    And,  to  induce — i.  e.,  buy —  these 
criminals  to  become  "  wiser  and  better  men,"  and  to 
observe  diligently  prison  rules,  they  advise  the  Legis- 
lature to  enact,  which  it  subsequently  did,  that  "  a 
sum  of  money  or  time,  however  small  at  first,  yet,  if 
regularly  added  to  monthly,  is  certain  to  amount  in 
the  aggregate  to  a  considerable  one,  and  you  have 
given  them  a  stimulus,  and  an  incentive  which,  in 
the  end,  is  likely  to  make  the  most  hardened,  despe- 
rate one  feel  that  the  law  of  kindness  is  over  him,  and 
that  which  he  has  perhaps  taught  himself  to  believe 
was  only  vengeance  inflicted  upon  him,  was  in  reality 
the  wisest  and  best  act  that  community,  in  its  aggre- 
gate capacity,  could  have  performed  for  him."  But 
simple  sentimentalities  are  poorly  adapted  to  prison 
life  and  convict  character.    The  idea  of  hiring  !  — 
bribing!  —  convicts  to  conform  to  prison  rules  by 
offers  of  money,  of  shortened  sentence,  of  the  pe  - 
rusal  of  entertaining  books,  of  correspondence  with 
and  visits  from  friends,  by  promises  of  a  "  clean  cer- 
tificate of  good  conduct,  without  which  no  pardon 
can  be  obtained,"  and,  finally,  the  hope  of  Executive 
mercy  itself,  are  so  calculated  to  make  them  hypo- 


44 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


crites,  that  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  bow  it  entered 
the  mind  of  man  to  propose  a  scheme  so  fraught  with 
deep-laid  injury  to  the  convict,  so  at  variance  with 
the  object  of  the  prisons,  and  so  unjust  to  society  at 
large.  Were  it  possible  to  obtain  reliable  statistics 
of  convict  recommitments,  they  would  show  the 
inherent  depravity  of  convict  character  so  far  beyond 
the  reach  of  prison  reformation  as  to  teach  progres- 
sionists an  instructive  lesson  in  the  changeless  and 
unfathomable  nature  of  man. 

In  this  endeavor  to  exhibit  the  general  policy  and 
condition  of  the  New  York  State  Prisons,  circum- 
stances operating  mostly  within  their  walls  have 
been  presented.  Other  influences,  however,  standing 
between  the  prisons  and  the  State,  have  yet  to  be 
analyzed  in  their  bearing  on  the  character,  usefulness 
and  ultimate  perfection  of  them. 

Incompatible  with  punishment,  self-support  and 
reformation,  assumed  to  be  inherent  in  these  institu- 
tions, there  exists  a  deplorable  want  of  moral  integ- 
rity and  business  capacity  on  the  part  of  the  greater 
portion  of  their  legally  constituted  inspectors.  Were 
it  necessary  to  go  back  of  common  fame  to  sustain 
these  allegations,  a  cursory  review  of  reports  of  inves- 
tigating committees  would  be  ample  indeed.  For 
instance:  —  The  Legislative  Committee  of  1851,  in 
their  report,  say,  in  its  very  inception,  "that  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  inspectors  either  fulfil  the  expec- 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


45 


tations  of  the  fraraers  of  the  constitutions  that  created 
them,  or  comply  with  the  statutes  that  govern  them." 
(Assembly  Doc.  No.  20,  A.  D.  1852.)  So  incapable 
had  they  proved  themselves  to  be,  and  so  corrupt  had 
they  become  in  the  short  period  of  four  years  as  to 
merit  the  denunciations  there  recorded. 

Whether  the  reiterated  charges  of  dishonorable  col- 
lusions ;  duplicity ;  peculation  and  general  disregard 
of  the  objects  and  interests  of  these  institutions  are 
true  in  full,  may  be  questionable.  But  that  an  accu- 
mulation of  facts  exists,  sufficient  to  condemn  this 
branch  of  the  State  government,  none  conversant  with 
its  history  can  deny.  The  committee  of  1854  to 
investigate  the  pecuniary  affairs  of  the  prisons  — 
Assembly  Doc.  No.  60,  A.  D.  1855,  on  page  162  — 

say  "That  inspector  is  shown  to  have.violated 

prison  laws,  interfered  with  prison  discipline, 1  used 
prison  property  and  public  credit  for  his  private  ben- 
efit, exercised,  we  think,  the  appointing  power  for  a 
consideration,  and  in  utter  disregard  of  the  public 
interests  and  his  duty,  to  have  retained  in  office  the 
clerk,  after  he  had  himself  denounced  him,  and  other 
officers  whose  unfitness  was  notorious."  It  also 
appears  that  with  inspectors  generally  —  page  131  — 
the  rewarding  of  personal  or  political  favorites 
appeared  to  be  an  object  of  greater  importance  than 
the  State,  the  welfare  of  the  prisons,  or  the  physical 
and  moral  condition  of  their  inmates."    And  in 


46 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


regard  to  peculations,  in  the  language  of  the  commit- 
tee—  page  151 — "without  stopping  to  comment 
upon  the  propriety  of  the  inspectors  conferring  with 
contractors  as  to  the  best  means  to  avoid  their  legal 
obligations,"  Arc,  &c.,  it  remains  —  page  156  —  "for 
the  Legislature,  upon  au  examination  of  the  testimony 
herewith  presented,  *  *  *  to  make  such  legal 
provisions  as  shall  prevent  the  recurrence  of  a  like 
disregard  of  private  rights  and  public  interests." 
Thus  we  tind  them  deranging  the  prisons,  debasing 
the  convicts,  corrupting  contractors,  dishonoring  the 
State,  and  making  themselves  a  party  to  transactions, 
the  obliquity  of  which  is  scarcely  paralleled  in  the 
institutions  under  their  charge. 

From  these  facts  it  appears  that  the  comparatively 
mild  denunciations  of  the  committee  of  1851  produced 
no  change  in  the  general  malfeasance  of  inspectors 
for  several  succeeding  years,  and  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt,  that  a  committee,  bringing  honesty 
of  purpose  with  ability,  to  the  task,  and  clothed  with 
power  to  penetrate  the  recesses  of  official  and  private 
corruption  in  connection  with  the  prisons,  would 
show  that  neither  the  dishonorable  practices  already 
brought  to  light,  nor  the  foundation  upon  which  they 
rest,  have  in  aught  been  disturbed. 

In  presenting  this  subject  in  its  naked,  unvarnished 
truth,  there  is  no  desire  to  reproduce  facts  merely  to 
expose  their  deformity,  but  to  present  the  general 


CKIME  AND  PUNISHMENT.  47 


policy  and  common  practices,  that  light  may  be 
thrown  on  the  vexed  condition  into  which  these 
prisons  have  fallen.  With  increasing  numbers,  bating 
the  ephemeral  influence  of  the  war,  a  deranged 
finance  and  dilapidated  discipline,  it  is  clearly  evident 
that  a  regenerating  process  is  necessary  for  their  ren- 
ovation, which  can  never  arise  from  its  present  polity. 
The  underlying  obstacle  is  to  be  found  in  the  charac- 
ter and  qualifications  of  that  class  of  politicians 
whence  their  inspection  is  usually  drawn.  It  is 
lamentable,  but  nevertheless  true,  that  in  the  State 
nominations  of  every  political  party  there  are  aspi- 
rants, confessedly  incompetent,  to  be  provided  for  ; 
**and  for  the  general  misapprehension  of  the  importance 
of  these  institutions,  their  management  has  been  set 
apart  for  their  special  benefit.  No  antecedent  of 
immorality,  nor  any  experimental  evidence  of  busi- 
ness incapacity  are  sufficient  to  exclude  them  from 
the  care  and  management  of  criminals.  It  appears 
not  to  be  considered  that  evil  example  in  high  places 
will  not  be  lost  on  those  already  degraded,  nor  that 
the  keen  intellect  of  the  commercial  man  and  the 
manufacturer  will  assuredly  detect  the  unequal  match 
unwittingly  thrown  in  their  way.  Thus  are  the  people 
forestalled  and  the  State  sacrificed  to  partisan  success. 
It  is  significant  to  remark,  that  of  twenty  Inspect- 
ors elected  under  this  constitution,  but  three  of  their 
number  have  been  returned  to  that  post  by  the  people. 


48  CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 


With  this  report  closes  the  seventeenth  year  of  the' 
conduct  and  management  of  the  New  York  State 
Prisons  under  the  provisions  of  the  new  constitution. 
Nearly  five  convict  generations  have  passed  in 
review  since  the  moral  superceded  in  part  the  physi- 
cal government  in  them,  and  with  an  experience 
accumulated  from  means  so  abundant,  philosophic 
deductions  would  have  been  a  more  acceptable  offer- 
ing to  mankind,  and  a  more  valuable  guide  to  future 
legislation  than  the  record  of  mawkish  sensibility,  of 
fulsome  compliment,  or  the  mere  barren  presentation 
of  statistics  which  we  have  before  us.  From  a  field 
so  broad,  it  might  have  been  profitably  shown  that 
poverty  and  disease,  intemperance,  insanity  and* 
crime,  are  at  least  in  part  inheritances,  and  that  penal 
statutes,  to  be  effective,  must  be  adapted  to  the 
abnormal,  as  well  as  normal  condition  of  criminals. 
The  subject  of  prison  discipline  to  this  State,  is  a  sub- 
ject of  vast  importance.  It  is  that  feature  which 
will  stand  out  upon  its  history  long  after  the  co-exist- 
ent financial  and  political  policy  will  have  been  for- 
gotten, or  merged  in  that  of  surrounding  nations.  It 
is  through  it  that  she  speaks  to  the  social  organiza- 
tions of  men.  Crime  and  its  concomitants  have  been 
the  enigma  of  philosophers  and  statesmen  in  all 
stages  of  society,  and  the  result  of  this  experiment, 
whether  it  be  good  or  whether  it  be  evil,  is  due  to  the 
world  as  a  beacon  to  succeeding  generations. 


LETTER 


A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 
INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION. 


